One Step Closer to Free is the title of a song I wrote back in 2023. I’ll post the YouTube video at the end of this article. The song is just another one of my hundreds of songs. But I’d like to talk a little about what it means to me.
First, I wrote One Step Closer to Free in early 2023, just a couple of months after moving from Yakima Washington to Waterboro Maine. At the time, I was feeling that newfound energy we tend to get when we make a major move. I was also enjoying living in a more rural setting.
Yet, after another year in Maine, I started to feel less of that energy. I have a good notion as to why. The freedom I was feeling in Maine was projected. It had as much to do with getting away from working 40 hours a week and becoming less dependent on our consumer culture as it did with the place.
My last post was about retirement. I don’t think quitting work is the golden ticket to happiness, but I do think many of us would be much happier if we were not basically slaves to the culture we live in.
Minimalism and the Music Store
Yesterday, I had to go into Vanderbilt for my quarterly labs. If you don’t know, I have polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer in which the red blood cells multiply too fast. Fortunately, most people can still live a fairly normal life and lifespan with the disease.
While I was in Nashville, I stopped by Gruhn’s Guitars and Rumble Seat Music. Cool shops. Of course, you know me, I love anything music. When I first went in, I was asked if I needed help. I said no, I have enough guitars right now and I’m just looking. The response of course, “You can never have enough guitars.”
Wait?
That’s not free. That is literally suggesting that one always needs more, even of a thing they love deeply. That whole ideas is suggesting one imprisons themselves to consumerism.
One Step Closer to Free
Yesterday, a random video came up on my YouTube feed. The channel is VibesnFrequencies. The guy, Nathan, talks about just living in the woods and being free. He suggests that we are all one, but that most people are stuck behind identities and masks within our sick culture. His message actually resonates with me, and it’s basically what I was alluding to in my song.
However, I was turned off by a couple of things. First, when I used to blog about minimalism, I felt dirty every time I tried to monetize the channel. In the end, that is why I stopped operating the Hip Diggs blog. I felt that monetizing a philosophy such as minimalism contradicted itself. It seemed hypocritical to me.
Nathan, like most YouTubers, is monetizing his message. I get it. People need to make money. But it also feels hypocritical to monetize a message that criticizes the very system that allows one to monetize it. And paying for a higher level of spiritual insight from a 27-year-old hippy feels borderline cult-like to me. And I know cults.
So What’s the Answer?
I don’t have the answer. I’m not a self-proclaimed guru or a spiritual leader. However, I do know that working less and owning less stuff will allow me to feel more freedom. And that is basically what my song, One Step Closer to Free is about.
It’s about getting away from cultural expectations and living more in line with nature. It’s about giving up some of your modern conveniences and living more intentionally. It’s about letting go of preconceived ideas about culture and religion. And it’s about letting go of the fear of death. Those are the things that will make us feel a greater sense of freedom. – dse
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